This is a very unique situation...
There is a freshmen (C/O 2021) D1 athlete at a prestigious university, who should remain nameless, who is also a contracted Army ROTC cadet. The Athlete/Cadet applied to West Point last year as a senior in high school as a recruited athlete with a (3.4 GPA and high athletic and extra circular honors with AP Classes and had attended the USMA SLE) and was granted an LOA to the Prep School. At the time, the individual chose to go another route which was the university route with ROTC and athletics. But now at the end of first semester, the individual remains thinking about the academy and the desire to do something bigger as ROTC doesn't have the same weight as being an academy cadet has. But in order to gain contact with the academy, it would require getting a release form from the athletic department meaning possibly burning your bridges at the current university in order to contact the academies. Would you recommend that the individual pursues possibly burning bridges to try and pursue the academy route or play it safe due to not knowing that they for sure would be able to attend an academy next year and not ruin their current situation? Also even though they are currently contracted army could they apply and contact other branches if they went this route to attempt to get into any of the academies? (current GPA: about a 3.1 academic through first semester and excelling in ROTC with contracting complete and excelling in athletics)
There is a freshmen (C/O 2021) D1 athlete at a prestigious university, who should remain nameless, who is also a contracted Army ROTC cadet. The Athlete/Cadet applied to West Point last year as a senior in high school as a recruited athlete with a (3.4 GPA and high athletic and extra circular honors with AP Classes and had attended the USMA SLE) and was granted an LOA to the Prep School. At the time, the individual chose to go another route which was the university route with ROTC and athletics. But now at the end of first semester, the individual remains thinking about the academy and the desire to do something bigger as ROTC doesn't have the same weight as being an academy cadet has. But in order to gain contact with the academy, it would require getting a release form from the athletic department meaning possibly burning your bridges at the current university in order to contact the academies. Would you recommend that the individual pursues possibly burning bridges to try and pursue the academy route or play it safe due to not knowing that they for sure would be able to attend an academy next year and not ruin their current situation? Also even though they are currently contracted army could they apply and contact other branches if they went this route to attempt to get into any of the academies? (current GPA: about a 3.1 academic through first semester and excelling in ROTC with contracting complete and excelling in athletics)
